Golf Thread

Out for golf today, the forecast was a little sketchy but turned out lovely, few drops of rain when we were teeing off on 14 but otherwise dry with a decent amount of sun, definitely not what I was expecting when I packed a change of clothes should I get too drenched :p

Scored 'ok', 110 overall, 54 front 9 which felt worse than I thought I was playing (no 8's though!) and then 56 back 9 which kinda feels better than I thought I was playing...

Some really nice bits though, on the 11th I absolutely flushed my 5 wood to 197 yards, my longest drive of the day was 203 yards! That drive came on the 12th, SI2 for the course, which is a deceptively short/easy Par 4, which I've never par'd... So 203 yard drive to kick it off, 130 yard hybrid put my pin-high but off the green to the right, which leads to the issue with this hole, the green... Undulating really doesn't give it credit. And there I am chippin on to it. Which goes remarkably well, left me with like a 5 foot putt for par. Which I didn't make of course, the didn't quite get the break and it just slipped away from the whole, tap in bogey though so not gonna complain.

Back was sore afterwards, just had a sports massage who recommended I visit a chiropractor, got a round booked on both Sunday and Monday, sure that'll be fine.
 
Just finished my driver lesson and wow, what a difference.

Instructor told me set up like I normally do, took a swing and fired it arrow straight down the range. Said to him that was a fluke and probably the best drive I've ever hit - he agreed and said it was a good hit for a bad swing :cry:

Totally changed my set up and got my swing speed up from around 98mph to 108mph and reckons a couple more lessons once I get used to the new swing I could be hitting 115mph. Total distance of about 280 on the range so he thinks I could be hitting it 300+ on some of the fairways here.

One thing that was very interesting was once I'd come to grips with the new swing/grip (which felt totally unnatural) he asked me to hit a few with my old swing which made me realise just how bad it was!

Playing on Monday so interested to see the results!
 
^ that's seriously impressive gains, money well spent!

Singles knockout tie today, played a guy with the same hcap index as me. Good game, could have been 3up after 3 but the putter was not behaving at all. Front 9 we were all square, then I was 4up by the 14th and the guy conceded.

Next round I'm giving up 12 shots to the opponent so that should be an interesting battle
 
Scrappy start to my round today, but managed to hole out well a few times to keep thing ticking over. Out in 40.

Back 9 was very decent, up and down from the sand for par at 10, bogie bogie next two. Then 13th - (SI1) - all uphill, 430 yards... Hit two cracking 7 woods, literally couldn't have hit them better to 15ft, holed the putt for birdie.

14th was playing 212 yards, into the breeze par 3 - tried to hit a choked down 7 wood but hit it too well and over the green for only double bogie of the day.

Then solid golf on the way in including a lovely birdie at the par 5 last with a superb 90 yard wedge to about 2ft - taking on board everything from my lesson the other day around short game.

So 78 gross for 70 net. Very happy with that - wouldn't say I had my A game today at all. But holed out well and short game was excellent.

Loads of ties over the next 10 days coming up.
 
woke up to 0.6 cut to 7.1 this morning... :D

Was just thinking about my golf and my dropping handicap.

Main things I would put it down to are.... (my thoughts - not saying it works for everyone)
  • Lessons - don't EVER think you can't improve/get some help. Maybe 12 lessons over last 2 years.... Huge improvement with only a few changes. I need very little to think about, I don't want to have to think about hips/elbow/weight shift/arms/head movement etc - it has to be simple for me.
  • 7 Wood - game changer for me. That 210-225 shot that climbs high/lands soft... unreal club and has been superb for me.
  • Get fitted for irons - Again Mizuno's I got fitted for have been unreal.... Confidence/looks/feel - everything just works.
  • Get confident holing 3/4ft putts.... I have bags of confidence in holing these so my first putt can generally run past the hole (if not in) - and I've very little worry about holing it coming back. Mate of mine leaves everything short, all the time - He said yesterday he's just worried about running it past the hole all the time.
Really happy with my game at the moment - Bag setup is spot on, no changes there needed.
 
Little life hack for you guys, why spend money on expensive putting training aids when you can make one out of cardboard which is only significantly worse?
BZttfCQ_d.webp
 
Well..things happening quickly..ordered the "ball stamps" from the US on the 3rd, just had confirmation they arrived in the UK about 15 minutes ago! :eek:

Even though im buying the official RPT balls through the week, im gonna test the "dots" out on some balls I have and see how they are, cant do no harm, and for 50 balls worth of stamps, the price was pretty cost effective compared to £70 for 12! :(
 
Today was the society game, but instead of the usual Shrivenham course we were at Cumberwell Park, a 'posh' (er) course just outside Bradford on Avon, it's a place I've been meaning to get to as it's so close and included in my county card thingy but this was my first time.

Hard course, damn hard :p We were playing 'Yellow and Blue' (they've got 4 9 holes + a par 3 nine, so you play some combination of 9's) which apparently is slope rating 125, course rating 69.7, a smidge over 6000 yards, waaaaay harder than the easy stuff I usually play. Didn't help that I was also playing badly but yeah.

Annoyingly towards the end, like the last 4-5 holes, we had some guy in a cart asking us to play faster/keep up, but we were in a society of 5 tee times and turns out when we started the Blue we were behind another even bigger society, every tee we had to wait if not for the group ahead to tee off definitely for them to take their second shot, and that was because they were waiting on the group ahead etc etc. Turns out this grumpy cart guy was the 'scratch captain' and they had put a scratch competition on behind two societies. ******* Genius. Ugh, didn't help being rushed but I was playing so badly I'm not sure I noticed :p

Still planning to go back at some point to play more stuff, maybe even just 9, or the par 3 9 followed by a proper one...

booyaka said:
woke up to 0.6 cut to 7.1 this morning... :D

Was just thinking about my golf and my dropping handicap.

Main things I would put it down to are.... (my thoughts - not saying it works for everyone)
  • Lessons - don't EVER think you can't improve/get some help. Maybe 12 lessons over last 2 years.... Huge improvement with only a few changes. I need very little to think about, I don't want to have to think about hips/elbow/weight shift/arms/head movement etc - it has to be simple for me.
  • 7 Wood - game changer for me. That 210-225 shot that climbs high/lands soft... unreal club and has been superb for me.
  • Get fitted for irons - Again Mizuno's I got fitted for have been unreal.... Confidence/looks/feel - everything just works.
  • Get confident holing 3/4ft putts.... I have bags of confidence in holing these so my first putt can generally run past the hole (if not in) - and I've very little worry about holing it coming back. Mate of mine leaves everything short, all the time - He said yesterday he's just worried about running it past the hole all the time.
Really happy with my game at the moment - Bag setup is spot on, no changes there needed.
Click to expand...

Not a 7 wood but I love my 5 and quite glad I didn't get a 3, actually really like the shape/look of the wood and really not a fan of hybrids so been thinking at some point might think about a 7 or something.

Also Irons is on the to-do list, kinda get mixed impressions as to whether fitting is really worth it though...
 
SKILL said:
Today was the society game, but instead of the usual Shrivenham course we were at Cumberwell Park, a 'posh' (er) course just outside Bradford on Avon, it's a place I've been meaning to get to as it's so close and included in my county card thingy but this was my first time.

Hard course, damn hard :p We were playing 'Yellow and Blue' (they've got 4 9 holes + a par 3 nine, so you play some combination of 9's) which apparently is slope rating 125, course rating 69.7, a smidge over 6000 yards, waaaaay harder than the easy stuff I usually play. Didn't help that I was also playing badly but yeah.

Annoyingly towards the end, like the last 4-5 holes, we had some guy in a cart asking us to play faster/keep up, but we were in a society of 5 tee times and turns out when we started the Blue we were behind another even bigger society, every tee we had to wait if not for the group ahead to tee off definitely for them to take their second shot, and that was because they were waiting on the group ahead etc etc. Turns out this grumpy cart guy was the 'scratch captain' and they had put a scratch competition on behind two societies. ******* Genius. Ugh, didn't help being rushed but I was playing so badly I'm not sure I noticed :p

Still planning to go back at some point to play more stuff, maybe even just 9, or the par 3 9 followed by a proper one...



Not a 7 wood but I love my 5 and quite glad I didn't get a 3, actually really like the shape/look of the wood and really not a fan of hybrids so been thinking at some point might think about a 7 or something.

Also Irons is on the to-do list, kinda get mixed impressions as to whether fitting is really worth it though...
Click to expand...

yeah, nothing worse than being rushed if you are playing at a decent pace, and with as scratch comp behind, like you said! :cry:
 
Yeah I watched that video when they released it, wasn't sure of them/their channel initially but liking it more and more.

And yeah, all good points really I guess, you do get others saying that 'just get some irons' kinda thing, especially for higher handicappers like myself...

This year I was prepared (but ended up not...) to get fit into brand new driver and hybrid, ended up getting an off the shelf few year old driver and 5 wood, happy with them tbh (except today, couldn't hit either :p) but cost was a large factor, even new at a local shop I got both for less than a 2023 driver.

The plan, as it is today, is to get Irons next year (feb/march time), and to get fit, but we'll see how that goes closer to the time :p I'm actually half tempted to ask to try some of the irons they've got at the shop next time I'm doing a simulator session, but then I'm gonna be really tempted to buy them and that's not in the budget! :cry:
 
Is there anything more frustrating than trying to take a new swing to the course? After years of worsening bad habits I've been trying to straighten out my swing path by multiple changes to my knees and grip and takeaway. When it's all good, the result is a lovely straight flight with good contact and distance control, when it's not quite all together it's all over the place. Shot 83 today with maybe six shortish makeable putts missed. Oh well, it was lovely weather.
 
May have broken 100 today. Not 100% sure as I got rather ****** off on the 5th when once again I lost a ball in the fairway and may have miscounted my subsequent shots, including another lost ball (my two for the day)

Tee'd off with a 6i and saw my ball land on the fairway towards the left edge. But when I arrived on the scene ball was nowhere to be found :confused: Fairway is always soft down that side so either it plugged and I missed it despite having a good look for it or something else happend to it. Dropped a replacement which I hit in the treas on the other side, couldn't find it and had to drop again. But of mind fog after that until I arrived at the 7th tee.

Most of the round irons were ok and driver straighter than normal. Wedges were absolute garbage and lost at least 6/7 shots with a variety of fats and thins. Putting so, so.

Shot of the round was a 3w on the 186 yard par 3 14th. Green is well protected on the right side by a bunker leaving a narrow channel if running one up there. Hit a beauty which landed just short and ran on to finish pin high. 194 yards according to my watch Unfortunately I was too tentative on the resulting tricky uphill put and made four.

Three pars over the round which is a PB. If only I could cut out the real dross sub 90 would be within reach. Got my rescheduled on course lesson on Friday. Forecast for the week looks mixed, hopefully weather turns out decent. Hopefully third time lucky!

Edit: and for some reason winter rules are in effect until 21st May. No idea why.
 
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Well I managed to finally break the 100 mark for only the second time. This time on a fully compliant course i may add as the first time was in the depths of winter with temporary greens and shortened holes.

However since that feat I've managed to regress and lost all ability to swing a golf club in the proceeding 3 rounds.

Think I've managed to figure out the issue that being my swing plane was too shallow but really I need another batch of lessons. It's been a year since the last lesson and I've progressed immensely since joining a proper club.
 
Cornubia said:
Well I managed to finally break the 100 mark for only the second time. This time on a fully compliant course i may add as the first time was in the depths of winter with temporary greens and shortened holes.

However since that feat I've managed to regress and lost all ability to swing a golf club in the proceeding 3 rounds.

Think I've managed to figure out the issue that being my swing plane was too shallow but really I need another batch of lessons. It's been a year since the last lesson and I've progressed immensely since joining a proper club.
Click to expand...

yeah, i have a shallow swing too mate, when I had a lesson a short time ago, when trying to take it straight back, felt so strange and difficult to get on that right swing path.
 
Zeebedy said:
yeah, i have a shallow swing too mate, when I had a lesson a short time ago, when trying to take it straight back, felt so strange and difficult to get on that right swing path.
Click to expand...

My swing has always been steep resulting in a nice slice along with other factors so many of the past lessons have focussed on this issue.

For the past year my swing plane has been somewhat neutral however recently I've been over compensating by rotating the wrist resulting in a shallow plane.

This is probably due to me being dreadful with the driver and trying to tinker with things in the hope that it will come together. The expensive reality is I need some more lessons.
 
yeah, i know where your coming from..im bad for constantly self analyzing and changing and "experimenting" etc..

stick with the lessons though mate, it will payoff in the end.

Everything about golf is amazing, but one thing...it aint cheap! :(
 
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Quick question for all the golfers - How often would/do you use:

- A divot repair fork
- A ball marker
- A stroke counter
- A club groove/face cleaner
- A shoe spike wrench

Asking as I'm gift shopping for the bro-in-law, who plays golf quite a bit.
 
My divot repair tool is used on every green. Even if I haven't left a mark chances are I'm repairing two or three others. It also doubles as my ball marker :) Clubs normally only properly cleaned after a round, towel usually suffices during general play.
 
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